Ambush!

When you exit the ruin, Claude is waiting for you. He will detect you even if you are sneaking, invisible, or chameleoned. He asks you to turn the carving over to him.

* If you give him the carving he'll turn and walk off. If you let him keep the carving you'll miss out on the reward given to you by Umbacano, but may still be able to get the third quest. You can of course pickpocket the carving from him as he's walking away.
* If you give him the carving and attack him quickly enough, just before you deal a killing blow to Claude, he and any other survivors will cease fighting and Claude may be talked to in order to re-obtain the carving. He comments, "I know when I'm beaten! Here, take the carving, if it means so much to you. I had no idea you would take things so personally." They will then leave as usual.
* If you refuse to give him the carving, he does not attack you as expected. Rather, he orders his three compatriots to kill you, turns invisible, then escapes on his horse. His friends come rushing in from hiding places and attack you. This can be a tough fight, but if you chose to accept S'razirr's help, he will aid you by attacking his fellow mercenaries rather than you. Alternatively, if you want to avoid a fight, you can run away.
* You can also kill all three of Claude's employees before you enter the ruin. If you do this, Claude won't even bother showing up. Note however, that this will count as murder and will cause the Dark Brotherhood questline to start.
* Alternately, just as you step outside the ruin you can cast a frenzy spell that covers enough area to include Maric's henchmen then run for it or duck back into the ruin for a minute. He won't give his little talk and will run off if any of them turn hostile towards him. Once the spell wears off the henchmen become neutral towards you.
* You can also avoid the encounter entirely by fast traveling as you leave the ruin, before you are spoken to.


Once you defeat them, return to the Imperial City and give the carving to Umbacano. He'll pay you the money promised as well as give you a new assignment: the Secrets of the Ayleids quest. If you chose the assistance of S'razirr and he survives the fight outside Malada, you may travel to the Tiber Septim Hotel (next to Umbacano's house) and uphold your end of the bargain. S'razirr will remain at the hotel until you pay him. If you refuse to pay him he will follow you everywhere, and when you leave the city, he will attack you.

yeah
But it didnt bother me too much, I guess becuase I liked the game for what it was, which is just a big old sandbox to kill [censored] in

Except that many of the GTA games have fantastic writing.

I get that the choices are nill, and I'm kinda wondering what peeps who've done it all in one go will do for a new character? I've restarted 3 times now and am trying to avoid the quests I've done in previous games. to date I haven't done Imp/stormcloaks/DB/Thieves/Mages/Bard well..pretty much any of the factions really. but as I hear it Imps/stormcloaks is the same, DB is shorter than Sin (my sis told me about it and she's been darkbrotherhooding since Morrowind when she was....8? lol) so I'm aprehensive about finally doing them.


but you HAVE to admit they are different, yeah their are still fetch quests....there are ALOT of fetch quests....but do you feel their presentation is effective? otherwise your preaching to the choir about lack of choice consequence and replayability

Complaints like this are getting pretty old here on the forum. If you don't like the game, move on. Those who do enjoy the game will keep playing. You have nothing of value here, other than your opinion that the game is not what you want it to be. So... play something else.

They (The Factions) were designed so that you do the "side-quests" (There are far more Side-Quests for the Factions than in Oblivion) instead of "rushing" their "Main-Quest". That "system" would have made the Factions seem more alive or something like that. The only thing that kind of ruined that design (That by itself could be good) is that the "Main-Quests" fell urgent from a RP point-of-view.

I didn't say I didn't like the game. Just sometimes I find myself playing my character and thinking "Why am I doing this?". I play games for the story.




But for me I also do sidequest based on how interesting the story is. In the DB it's go kill this and this. And that's just boring. Why opt out of a story for a side quest that has nothing?

I dropped a main quest for a guild because I heard about this guy who wanted me to convince his master to take him back and end up in an interesting situation.

Except that many of the GTA games have fantastic writing.

They do? I guess I was never into the whole "ghetto" of it. I never really got into GTA, it just was never my style of game. I watch my brother play it.

I was talking about how some people fell that the Factions have "short" Quest-Lines and them I said "why" they fell short.

I agree with you, the writing could be better. Maybe in TES VI, when they can improve the Radiant Story system (That by itself is a great idea IMO) we are going to see some well-written radiant (So, not two quests are alike) quests. :disguise:

I didn't say I didn't like the game.

Yes I have played Skyrim non stop with a few breaks to play Sims 3 and some other games, but I'm not into Skyrim.

Complaints like this are getting pretty old here on the forum. If you don't like the game, move on. Those who do enjoy the game will keep playing. You have nothing of value here, other than your opinion that the game is not what you want it to be. So... play something else.

Well factions also need ranks, imo.

It's nothing like GTA, but of course you are entitled to your opinion.

I find the lack of branching dialogue puzzling too, since other Beth games had it. They seem to have went with a barebones approach to story-telling in Skyrim, and for better or worse it worked. Reviews are stellar and they made beaucoup money from sales. However, it leaves the "immersion" they like to blab about sorely lacking.

Generally GTA delivers exactly what it advertises, unbridled mayhem wrapped in some fantastic story telling. Skyrim has mediocre fantasy story-telling inside of an amazing setting. Luckily, and this is Bethesda's true strong point, they strongly support in-depth modding of their games. This shows that they actually have some level of faith and appreciation in their (PC at least) customer base.

Really???


That is exactly what you said.....Not into it or not like it, sounds the same to me. Just pointing that out to you.

ha you made me realize why the quest description was removed...there isn't much to describe

ha you made me realize why the quest description was removed...there isn't much to describe

lol.

I always liked the journals:

I have talked to so and so and have decided to help him. He is looking for his lost wife last said to be in the tavern. I should speak to all her friends to see what I can deduce where she may be. I should talk to her husband to get some names of her closest friends. And then maybe I should speak to the tavern keep, etc.

That was always fun. Always made me feel like the character.